Selling through a Resale Company or Timeshare Brokers

For a list of well established resale companies or timeshare brokers, most of them members of RDO, or ARDA with detail on their charges and the way they operate click here.

This method offers a higher possibility of sale and it is the easiest for the owner, the downside is that you must pay for their service, one way or the other it will cost you money. Primarily a resale company gets the owner more exposure, but you must pay for it. They must spend large sums on advertisements and other forms of advertising, marketing and promotion if they are to succeed. Someone has to pay for it. Most companies charge either an up front fee and in some cases a commission on sale or legal transfer costs when a sale is secured or on completion. Remember you are paying for the extra exposure and their services, however, if you do not price your unit right, no one will ever be able to sell it for you.

There are no “star” companies in the resale market. They all experience great difficulties. The ones who do not charge for advertising cannot afford to advertise regularly, so their buyers enquiries would obviously be much less than the re-seller who advertises constantly.

However, with a good website such companies may receive a reasonable number of enquiries. The running of a good website is not cheap, despite what many of us would think. Our advice is to place your Timeshare for sale with various re-sellers as some do not charge anything and the ones who charge should be able to demonstrate the level of advertising they will provide for the money taken, this joint effort should bring you the best possible exposure.

Ensure the company you choose offers the security of an Escrow account so you can be sure both yourself and the buyer are fully protected.

An Escrow account in this respect is where buyers monies are deposited in a clients account administered by a solicitor, bank, or trustee and are only released upon submission of the ownership document transferred into the name of the new owner(s). In an Escrow account, buyers pay direct to the solicitor, bank or trustee, so there is no temptation for resale companies to use clients monies as cash flow. Once in Escrow the monies cannot be withdrawn until completion of sale, when the vendor is paid and commission to the reseller released – or if the transfer is not concluded by the purchaser.

Watch out for:

The unscrupulous resale companies who sell stock at negligible prices. They use the buyers monies as working capital, rarely pay vendors or only under duress (when they go bust vendors have lost their ownership and received no monies).
They can only be good to you if they pay you before you hand over your ownership documents. However, there is still the danger that they do not process the legal transfer of ownership and you end up receiving demands for maintenance fee payments and sometimes being taken to court by the resort for the arrears.
For re-sellers asking for advance payment for legal costs, registered taxes or other fees before a sale is completed.
For auction fees – unless you are dealing with an auctioneer.
For registration fees. If re-sellers are not doing anything more for you than entering your Timeshare on their stock list, which is to their advantage, they should not be asking you to pay a fee.
For a re-seller that charges an up front fee for undisclosed services. If a company provides a specific service for you such as advertising your Timeshare or conveyancing make sure that such service is confirmed in writing with full details of what and when you are getting for the money you paying. TATOC and RDO Resale Members must follow the Code of Ethics, which is clear in its restrictions on taking up front fees.